Benedict Joseph Labre | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1748-03-26)26 March 1748 Amettes,Artois,Kingdom of France |
| Died | 16 April 1783(1783-04-16) (aged 35) Rome,Papal States |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 20 May 1860, Rome byPope Pius IX |
| Canonized | 8 December 1881, Rome byPope Leo XIII |
| Majorshrine | Church ofSanta Maria ai Monti, Rome, Italy |
| Feast | 16 April |
| Attributes | tri-cornered hat; alms |
| Patronage | The homeless, those suffering frommental illness[1] |
Benedict Joseph Labre, TOSF (French:Benoît-Joseph Labre, 26 March 1748 – 16 April 1783) was a FrenchFranciscan tertiary, andCatholicsaint. Labre was from a well-to-do family near Arras, France. After attempting a monastic lifestyle, he opted instead for the life of a pilgrim. He traveled to most of the major shrines of Europe, subsisting by begging. Labre is patron saint of the homeless.[2]
Labre was born on 26 March 1748 in the village ofAmettes,[3] nearArras, in the formerProvince ofArtois in the north of France. He was the eldest of fifteen children of a prosperous shopkeeper, Jean-Baptiste Labre, and his wife, Anne Grandsire.[4]
Labre had an uncle, aparish priest, living some distance from his family home, who received Labre and undertook his early education for the priesthood. At the age of 16, he approached his uncle about becoming aTrappist monk, but was rebuffed by his parents, who wanted him to wait until he was older to do so.
When he was about 18, an epidemic[further explanation needed] struck the city, and both Labre and his uncle worked in the service of the sick. While his uncle took care of the souls and bodies of the people, Labre cared for the city's cattle. Among the last victims of the epidemic was Labre's uncle.
Following the epidemic, Labre set off forLa Trappe Abbey to apply to the Trappist Order, but was refused on grounds of being under age, too delicate, and having no special recommendations.[5] He later attempted to join theCarthusians andCistercians, but each order rejected him as unsuitable for communal life. He was, for about six weeks, a postulant with the Carthusians at Neuville. In November 1769 he obtained admission to the Cistercian Abbey of Sept-Fonts. After a short stay at Sept-Fonts his health gave way, and it was decided that his vocation lay elsewhere.[4]
Labre, according to Catholic tradition, experienced a desire, which he considered was given to him by God and inspired by the example ofAlexius of Rome and that of the Franciscan tertiary pilgrim,Saint Roch, to "abandon his country, his parents, and whatever is flattering in the world to lead a new sort of life, a life most painful, most penitential, not in a wilderness nor in a cloister, but in the midst of the world, devoutly visiting as a pilgrim the famous places of Christian devotion."[4]
Labre joined theThird Order of Saint Francis and settled on a life of poverty andpilgrimage. He first traveled toRome on foot, subsisting on what he could get by begging. He then traveled to most of the major shrines ofEurope, often several times each. He visited the variousshrines inLoreto,Assisi,Naples, andBari in Italy,Einsiedeln inSwitzerland,Paray-le-Monial in France, andSantiago de Compostela inSpain. During these trips he would always travel on foot, sleeping in the open or in a corner of a room, with his clothes muddy and ragged. On one occasion he stopped at the farmhouse of Matthieu and Marie Vianney, who would later become the parents ofCuré d'Ars.[6] He lived on what little he was given, and often shared the little he did receive with others. He is reported to have talked rarely, prayed often, and accepted quietly the abuse he received.
In so doing, Labre was following in the role of the mendicant, the "Fool-for-Christ," found more often in theEastern Orthodox Church. Labre spent many hours in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.[2] He would often swoon when contemplating thecrown of thorns, in particular, and, during these states, it is said he would levitate orbilocate. He was also said to have cured some of the other homeless people he met and to have multiplied bread for them. In the last years of his life, he lived inRome, for a time living in the ruins of theColosseum, and would leave only to make a yearly pilgrimage to the shrine ofOur Lady of Loreto. He was a familiar figure in the city and known as the "saint of theForty Hours" (orQuarant' Ore) for his dedication toEucharistic adoration.
The day before he died, Labre collapsed on the steps of the church ofSanta Maria ai Monti, blocks from the Colosseum, and despite his protestations was taken to a house behind the church at Via dei Serpenti 2. He died there of malnutrition and exhaustion on 16 April 1783,[2] duringHoly Week, and was buried in the Church of Santa Maria ai Monti.
Labre'sconfessor, Marconi, wrote his biography and attributed 136 separate cures to his intercession within three months of his death. Those miracles were instrumental in the conversion of the ReverendJohn Thayer, the first American Protestant clergyman to convert to Catholicism, who was resident in Rome at the time of St. Benedict's death.[7] A cult grew up around him very soon after his death; he was declaredBlessed byBlessed Pius IX in 1860, andcanonized byPope Leo XIII in 1881.[8] Benedict is patron saint of the homeless.[9] Hisfeast day is observed on April 16.
